Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
2. Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (Claims 1-4, 12-18, 23-27 and 29-30) in the reply filed on 11/17/25 is acknowledged. Also, in the reply filed on 11/17/25 Applicant has added new claims 31-33. Accordingly, claims 1-4, 12-18, 23-27 and 29-33 are subject to examination.
Claim Objections
3. Following claims are objected to because of the following informalities:
in claim 1, “(UE), comprising:” (line 2) should be replaced with “(UE), the method comprising:”;
in claim 15, “station, comprising:” (line 2) should be replaced with “station, the method comprising:”;
in claim 26, “(UE), comprising:” (line 2) should be replaced “(UE), the apparatus comprising:” and
in claim 29, “station, comprising:” (line 2) should be replaced with “station, the apparatus comprising:”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
4. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
5. Claims 1-4, 12-18, 23-27 and 29-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the Applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the active antenna port group" in lines 8 and 9-10. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim (note: the claim recites in lines 3-4 “at least one active antenna port group” and in lines 11-13 “the at least one active antenna port group”). Hence, renders claim 1 and its dependent claims indefinite. Similar rejection applies to claims 15, 26 and 29.
Reason for Allowance
6. Regarding claims 1, 15, 26 and 29, Ko (US 8,380,135 B2) teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (Figure 13: “UE”), comprising: receiving, from a base station (Figure 13: “BS”), an indication of at least one active antenna port group (Figure 13: Step 210 “Antenna Group Indicator”) of a plurality of antenna port groups (Figure 12: “Antenna Group A… Antenna Group F”), wherein the plurality of antenna port groups a first antenna port group (Figure 12: “Antenna Group A”) and a second antenna port group (Figure 12: “Antenna Group B”); and mapping one or more layers of an uplink message to the at least one active antenna port group based at least in part on the indication of the at least one active antenna port group (Figure 13: Step 230 “Data Transmission Through Selected Antenna” & Tables 5-9: UE transmits antenna selection and codebook with ranks).
Kim (2017/0366235 A1) teaches a first active antenna group (Figure 5: Step 501 “Activate First Number of Antennas”) and a second active antenna group (Figure 5: Step 507 “Activate Second Number of Antennas”).
Frenne (2018/0278312 A1) teaches a first indication indicates the first antenna group (Figure 10: Step 1001 “Receive the first indication and/or the second indication” & Step 1002: “Configured the wireless device with the first set of antenna ports and the second set of antenna ports”) and a second indication indicates the second antenna group (Figure 10: Step 1001 “Receive the first indication and/or the second indication” & Step 1002: “Configured the wireless device with the first set of antenna ports and the second set of antenna ports”).
However, the prior art of record fails to teach: first indication indicates that the first antenna port group is the active antenna port group and second indication indicates that the second antenna port group is the active antenna port group.
In addition, Hakola (US 2020/0106168 A1) teaches in Figure 2 a UE transmits antenna panel capability to a BS and the BS transmits bitmap of the antenna panel.
In addition, Rahman (US 11,647,467 B2) teaches in Figure 13 a UE transmits capability information to a BS and the BS transmits a transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI).
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to SHAWKAT M. ALI whose telephone number is (571) 270-1639. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8:30AM-3:30PM ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO AIR at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, SAM K. AHN can be reached on (571) 272-3044. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHAWKAT M ALI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633